Quoting Rich Nye, WTHR: "Major flooding in early April caused major damage in some areas of Indiana. In southern Bartholomew County, an Indiana University researcher is studying the impact on Hoosier farmland.
On Wednesday, IU students collected sensors from farmland that sits in the flood plain along the East Fork of the White River in Jonesville. Some sensors measure atmospheric pressure to determine water depth. Other sensors are buoyant and help determine the velocity of moving flood waters.
"The big flood gave us an opportunity to really understand how these big events reshape landscapes,” said IU earth scientist Doug Edmonds, “because an interesting thing that we want to understand is whether or not the soil is being eroded gradually over time, or if it's these big floods, in these big whopping events that do all the erosion, and then the landscape sits around and waits for the next big one.""
The College of Arts